The Aalto University School of Economics is committed to quality in our mission and vision.
Quality is an attribute of performance, usually with reference to the achievement of specified goals. High quality is integral to the way we aim to conduct our operations and fulfill our vision to be a world class business school. Our quality system and its processes are designed to support the achievement of our mission and strategy.
In February 2008 the School's Board approved a special Quality Policy which is consistent with our strategy and re-affirms our commitment to strengthening quality development and assurance processes and practices.
At Aalto University School of Economics, quality assurance is an integral part of continuous improvement and process development of the whole organization and cannot thus be easily presented as a separate function. Our quality system integrates the planning and reporting cycles at various levels in our organization: institutional planning and reporting with the Ministry of Education; internal unit planning and reporting with our university management team; individual development discussions; regular reviews of teaching and research programs; and regular cycles of accreditation and benchmarking.
Through benchmarking, audits and accreditations we regularly monitor the quality of our processes and practices. The results of benchmarking, auditing and accreditations provide us very useful feedback that can be used to further develop our systems, process and practices. In turn this helps keep us competitive, and developing towards our goal to be widely recognised as a world class business school.
The School actively participates in national and international accreditations, rankings and benchmarking, which evaluate the whole organization, separate programs or administrative practices. The most important aim of these assessments is to receive expert feedback. The feedback generated through accreditation processes is used to draw up programs and set targets to improve the teaching and learning programs, research processes and outputs, and other administrative and support processes.
Accreditations
In Finland the national accreditation body for universities is the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council, FINHEEC (KKA in Finnish).
In spring 2008 our own quality assurance and development processes and practices were audited in their entirety by the FINHEEC. In September the Council confirmed that HSE fulfils all their criteria. The audit is valid for 6 years. The full report is published in English at http://www.kka.fi/files/597/KKA_1008.pdf
The School also participates in international accreditations which provides us with badges to indicate we have achieved and maintain specified international standards of quality in business and management education.
The international standard of the quality of research, education programs, and services at HSE has been recognized by all three international standards organizations that certify business schools (AACSB, AMBA and EQUIS).
Benchmarking
We have been especially active in the European Benchmarking Initiative in Higher Education this decade (www.education-benchmarking.eu/).
Audits
The School has participated in many audits and reviews conducted nationally eg
an audit of provision of lifelong learning services in 2007 http://www.kka.fi/pdf/julkaisut/KKA_807.pdf) and an audit of higher education in business studies (http://www.kka.fi/pdf/julkaisut/KKA_603.pdf).
Rankings
Rankings are another indicator of how others see our quality. The School has been appearing in the Financial Times Rankings regularly since 2001. The most recent ranking results are always accessible on line at www.ft.com.